US Air Force Launches GPS Satellite to Complete Navigation Constellation

As reported by Space.com: The final addition to a group of global positioning satellites successfully launched into orbit this morning.

The GPS IIF-12 satellite took off today (Feb. 5) aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:38 a.m. EST (1338 GMT). The satellite was built by Boeing, and is operated by the U.S. Air Force. It is the 12th and final block IIF global positioning system satellite to launch.

"This is a significant milestone for GPS, the 50th GPS satellite to be delivered on-orbit," said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, Space and Missile Systems Center commander and Air Force program officer for space, in a statement from Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral. "The GPS IIF satellite performance has been exceptional and is expected to be operational for years to come."

The Atlas V rocket is built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. As with previous IIF satellite launches, the rocket was in a 401 configuration, which consists of a 4.2-meter (13.7 feet) payload fairing and two booster stages.

GPS satellites fly at an altitude of about 12,550 miles (20,200 km), and provide global positioning, navigation and timing services to both civilians and military personnel.

The IIF-12 launch date was initially delayed when ULA officials were alerted to a possible problem with electrical connectors in the Atlas V booster. In a media briefing Jan. 29, Walter Lauderdale, the GPS IIF-12 mission director, said the problem was fully investigated and solved, but delayed the launch by "a couple of days."

"We took the time to inspect all the subject connectors and verified the integrity of those connectors," Lauderdale said. "Frankly, a day or two delay cannot possibly compare to the loss of a vital national asset. That is the nature of a sharp focus on mission success."

Built by Boeing, the $131 million satellite will join a constellation of 30 other operational GPS satellites, the first of which was launched in 1990. The "Block II" family of satellites have consisted of the IIA series, followed by the IIR series, and the IIF series. The first IIF satellite was launched in 2010, and the GPS-11 satellite was launched on Oct. 31, 2015. The IIF-12 satellite is the last in the IIF series, and Boeing is already working on an IIIF series of satellites to join the GPS constellation.

During a live broadcast of the launch, Dan Hart, vice president of government satellite systems for Boeing, spoke about the improvements of the IIF series from previous series used in this GPS constellation. According to Hart, the IIF satellites have improved clocks; a jam-resistant military signal; and a new, dedicated civilian signal that is particularly useful for commercial aviation and search-and-rescue operations.

Elon Musk 'Tempted' to Build Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Jet

As reported by IBTimes: Elon Musk says he is close to working out how to build an electric jet which would take off and land vertically. The Tesla boss revealed his plans during a question-and-answer session at the Hyperloop Pod competition in Texas.

Such a plane may sound impossible, but Musk has a strong track record for turning concepts into reality. He has brought electric cars into the mainstream with Tesla, is experimenting with reusable space rockets at SpaceX, and is now involved with Hyperloop, his plan for a 700mph train.

Speaking at the Hyperloop event, Musk answered the question of what his next "great idea" will be, by saying: "I've been thinking about the vertical-take off and landing electric jet a bit more. I think I have something that might close. I'm quite tempted to do something about it." Musk's comments were initially met with quiet laughter, then cheers and applause as the audience realised he was being serious.

Naturally, the next question fired at Musk was "How do you convince people that your ideas aren't crazy?", to which he answered: "In starting SpaceX, they definitely thought I was crazy. One of my best friends compiled a long video of rockets crashing and made me watch the whole thing. Other friends involved in a rocket startup said it was a terrible idea, and I thought we had a really tiny chance of succeeding anyway, like 10%... and it was very close [to failure] but I think, ultimately, seeing is believing... that's what convinces people."

History repeating
This is not the first time Musk has talked about building an electric jet. During an interview with Marketplace in October 2015, Musk said: "I do like the idea of an electric aircraft company. I do think one could do a pretty cool supersonic, vertical-take off and landing electric jet. That would be really fun."

When asked if he was just making things up, Musk said: "No, I have a design in mind for that, but I have too many things on my plate to do, and then of course there is the Hyperloop."

In 2014, Musk also mentioned his electric plane ideas during an interview with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), when he said he was "toying" with the concept, adding: "I would love to do it, but I think my mind would explode."

Musk's comments come in the same week which saw budget airline EasyJet announce it is looking at producing hybrid electric airliners. The plans describe a kinetic energy recovery system (Kers) similar to that used by Formula One cars, where energy created by braking when landing would be stored in a battery and used to run and even taxi the plane without using its jet engines.

Obama Proposes $10 per Barrel Oil Tax to Fund Clean Transportation

As reported by Engadget: President Obama has proposed a $10 per-barrel tax on oil to fund cleaner mass transit and cleaner vehicle research. The plan, laid out in a fact sheet, is a "smart, strategic integrated investments to help reduce carbon pollution, strengthen economy" according to the White House.

The fact sheet notes that 30 percent of the nation's green house gas emissions come from public transportation. The proposed tax is expected to increase investment in a clean transportation by 50 percent.

That includes $20 billion per year raised by the new tax being used to fund public transportation to reduce traffic and pollution. While approximately $10 billion per year will be used to fund cities and states that come up with solutions for cutting emissions. About $2 billion will be allocated for clean and autonomous vehicle research.

As expected, the oil industry is not amused. American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard issued the following statement: "The White House thinks Americans are not paying enough for gasoline, so they have proposed a new tax that could raise the cost of gasoline by 25 cents a gallon, harm consumers that are enjoying low energy prices, destroy American jobs and reverse America's emergence as a global energy leader." He continued,"On his way out of office, President Obama has now proposed making the United States less competitive."

The proposal will have a tough time in the Republican controlled House and Senate. Actually, there's a good chance it's going to die rather quickly once it leaves the White House.

Scientists in Germany Take Another Major Step Towards Nuclear Fusion

As reported by Gizmodo: Physicists in Germany have used an experimental nuclear fusion device to produce hydrogen plasma in a process similar to what happens on the Sun. The test marks an important milestone on the road towards this super-futuristic source of cheap and clean nuclear energy. 

Earlier today in an event attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (herself a PhD physicist), researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald turned on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, an experimental nuclear fusion reactor. (Actually, the researchers let Merkel do the honors.) This €400 million ($435 million) stellarator is being used by physicists to test the technical viability of a future fusion reactor.

Unlike nuclear fission, in which the nucleus of an atom is split into smaller parts, nuclear fusion creates a single heavy nucleus from two lighter nuclei. The resulting change in mass produces a massive amount of energy that physicists believe can be harnessed into a viable source of clean energy.

It’ll likely be decades (if not longer) before true nuclear fusion energy is available, but advocates of the technology say it could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear fission reactors. Unlike conventional fission reactors, which produce large amounts of radioactive waste, the by-products from nuclear fusion are deemed safe. 

Via Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Tino Schulz - Public Relations Department, Max-Planck-Institut.

Back in December, the same team of researchers fired up the donut-shaped device for the first time, heating a tiny amount of helium. During today’s experiment, a 2-megawatt pulse of microwave was used to heat the hydrogen gas and convert it into an extremely low density hydrogen plasma. “With a temperature of 80 million degrees and a lifetime of a quarter of a second, the device’s first hydrogen plasma has completely lived up to our expectations,” said physicist Hans-Stephan Bosch in a press statement.

W7-X isn’t expected to produce any energy, but it will be used to test many of the extreme conditions that future devices will be subjected to in order to generate power. Temperatures within the device could conceivably reach 180 million degrees F (100 million degrees C). 

As noted by John Jelonnek, a physicist at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in a Guardian article, “It’s a very clean source of power, the cleanest you could possibly wish for. We’re not doing this for us but for our children and grandchildren.”

China Launches New MEO BeiDou Navigation Satellite

As reported by Inside GNSS: China successfully completed its first BeiDou launch of the year, lifting a new-generation satellite into orbit yesterday (February 1, 2016) and adding to its 17 operational spacecraft in the nation’s GNSS (GPS-like) constellation.

The fifth of the new series, the middle-Earth-orbiting (MEO) satellite will join its four predecessors in testing inter-satellite crosslinks and a new navigation payload that will set the framework and technical standards for global coverage, according to the Xinhua state news agency.

Designated BDS M3-S, this is the first of two BeiDou satellites scheduled for launch in 2016, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The spacecraft contains a technology demonstator —identified as a “chip” by program officials — that will, if proved successful, help in the design of smaller, better integrated, more reliable satellites, BeiDou deputy commander-in-chief Li Guotong said. It also contains a particle detector to assess radiation conditions in the BeiDou constellation's environment.

According to Libin Xiang, commander-in-chief of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) project, the latest satellite is crucial to implementing a transition from the regional system declared operational in December 2011 and a full-fledged system expected to be completed by 2020.

"Our new intersatellite crosslink system, featuring strong disturbance resistance and high-level privacy, is the core technology to compete with other countries' navigation networks. The new satellite will fully verify our technology," said Baojun Lin, the satellite's chief designer.

Lin said the satellite will operate without the help of ground control and broadcast continually, key requirements for navigation services.

According to Xinhua, China plans to expand the Beidou services to most of the countries covered in the Silk Road Economic Belt (also knowns as the “Belt and Road”) initiative by 2018, a swatch of countries stretching through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The Beidou Phase III system of which BDS M3-S will be a part will migrate its civil B1 signal from 1561.098 MHz to a frequency centered at 1575.42 MHz – the same as the GPS L1 and Galileo E1 civil signals.  The former quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation will be a time-multiplexed binary offset carrier (TMBOC) modulation similar to the new civil GPS L1C and Galileo's Open Service signal.Meanwhile, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will place the final GPS follow-on block satellite (IIF-12) into orbit for the U.S. Air Force on Friday (February 5, 2016) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. A 19-minute launch window opens at 8:38 a.m. EST. On Sunday (February 7, 2016), Russia is scheduled to launch another GLONASS-M satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome north of Moscow.

The Oil Crash is Kicking Off One of the Largest Wealth Transfers in Human History: $3 Trillion per Year

As reported by Yahoo Finance: Economists are still hotly debating whether the oil crash has been a net positive for advanced economies.

Optimists argue that cheap oil is a good thing for consumers and commodity-sensitive businesses, while pessimists point to the hit to energy-related investment and possible spillover into the financial system.

A new note from Francisco Blanch at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, however, puts the oil move into a much bigger perspective, arguing that a sustained price plunge "will push back $3 trillion a year from oil producers to global consumers, setting the stage for one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history."

Blanch and his team already see evidence that the fall in the price of crude is having a positive impact on demand, and say that it could accelerate even further if prices don't pick up. 

Says Blanch: "Alternatively in a lower oil price scenario, e.g. if prices were to average just $40 over the next five years which is close to the current forward curve, demand would grow by 1.5 million barrels per day, which is 0.3 above our base case. Finally, at $20 oil demand would grow by an explosive by 1.7 per year on average, 0.5 above the base case, on our estimates."

Meanwhile, in emerging markets, where much of the story of late has been about disappointing economic growth, Blanch still sees huge upside potential in terms of automobile penetration and consumption.

Take China for example, where the strategist sees the oil plunge helping to fuel a boom in SUV sales: "Moreover, the low oil price is encouraging Chinese consumers to buy increasingly larger cars. Sales of SUVs, the heaviest passenger vehicles category, are up 60 percent year-on-year in the last three months, while overall passenger vehicle sales are growing robustly at 22 percent."

And it's not just emerging markets where the impact of cheaper gasoline is being seen. 

After years of stagnation, vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. clearly ticked higher in 2015.

Combine these trends with the decline in, say, Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves, or the stock price of any oil company, and you can see the dramatic wealth shifts now taking place in the world. 

MIT Hyperloop Team Rockets Past Competition

As reported by the Boston Herald: It may seem like so much pie in the sky right now, but a globally embraced dream of creating a levitating, 700-mile-per-hour public transit system is already coming true for enterprising engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who learned Saturday that their design of a futuristic bullet train bested 100 others submitted from around the world for the SpaceX Hyperloop.

“Wow! We are beyond excited to announce we just won 1st place in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition!!!!!!!!” the MIT Hyperloop team posted on Facebook from the weekend competition at Texas A&M University, along with a video showing them erupting in screams, whistles and applause as their winning entry was announced.

MIT’s team of more than two dozen graduate and undergraduate students will receive $50,000 from Hyperloop Technologies Inc. to build their creation.

Powered by renewable energy, Hyperloop aims to rocket floating passenger pods through elevated tubes at nearly the speed of sound. California-based aerospace company SpaceX, which sponsored the design competition, is planning to start testing human-scale pods on a specially designed track as early as this summer.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s billionaire brainiac, told the awards ceremony his inspiration for Hyperloop comes from being stuck in Los Angeles traffic and being an hour late for a speech.

“I’m starting to think this is really going to happen,” Musk said. “It’s clear that the public and the world wants something new, and it’s clear that you guys are going to bring it to them.”